(STEVENSVILLE, MD) January 14, 2020 – Paul Reed Smith Dragon model guitars are among the most coveted PRS models. PRS is celebrating this historic model in 2020 with the ninth installment since the company’s first Dragon model in 1992: the Private Stock 35th Anniversary Dragon Limited Edition.
“When I was a teenager, I had a dream about a guitar with a dragon inlaid down the neck, and in 1992, I was able to realize that dream for the first time. It has become an important part of our history to celebrate the technology that allows us to create these intricate inlays and the idea that dreams can become reality. I really like this new 35th Anniversary Dragon,” said Paul Reed Smith.
The visual star of the guitar is the elaborate, fantastical dragon inlay commissioned from Jeff Easley, a fantasy artist famous for some Dungeons & Dragons rulebook covers, who has contributed to several PRS Dragon guitars. PRS again engaged longtime partner Aulson Inlay to deconstruct Easley’s artwork and recreate it into several distinct parts that have been embedded into the fretboard of the guitar and conclude with the dragon’s breath of fire extending onto the truss rod cover. More than 225 parts were used to create the inlay. The finished design is fashioned from a wide array of materials including Green Ripple Abalone, Green Abalone Select, Black Mother of Pearl, Stabilized Sand-Shaded Holly, Red with Gold Vein Recon Stone, Raffir Striped Black, Black and Red Raffir Aluminum Wave, Abaloid Acrylic, Nocturne Corian, as well as Blue Pacific, Citrine, and Flame Lab-Grown Opal.
The Private Stock 35th Anniversary Dragon is based off of the PRS McCarty model, featuring a McCarty-thickness back, PRS Stoptail bridge, and a classic volume, push/pull tone control, and 3-way toggle electronics layout, but with TCI model pickups from Paul’s Guitar and tweaked Phase III Locking tuners for a unique balance of vintage and modern specifications. The extraordinary Private Stock grade tonewoods were hand-selected for this limited series and include a curly maple top, African ribbon mahogany back, and a chaltecoco Pattern neck with a 25” scale length, 22 fret ziricote fingerboard.
35th Anniversary Dragons will come finished in Frostbite Dragon’s Breath. Choosing one of Private Stock’s Dragon’s Breath style finishes was the perfect choice for this run, with the stain sporting a lighter color (or “glow”) toward the belly of the guitar that mimics the shape of a flame shooting out of a dragon’s mouth. The smoked black hardware brings a fierce elegance to the instrument.
“Looking at the final 35th Anniversary Dragon, I am incredibly proud. This guitar is PRS through and through from the fingerboard design to the pickups. I think it’s one of our most elegant Dragons yet,” said Paul Miles, Director of Private Stock.
The Private Stock 35th Anniversary Dragon will be limited to 135 pieces worldwide and will ship between February and June 2020. From more information, please visit www.prsguitars.com/privatestock.
Past PRS Dragon Models include:
- PRS Dragon I, 1992
- PRS Dragon II, 1993
- PRS Dragon III, 1994
- Dragon 2000
- Dragon 2002
- 20th Anniversary Dragon, 2005
- 25th Anniversary Dragon, 2010
- 30th Anniversary Dragon, 2015
- 35th Anniversary Dragon, 2020